History
The Doolittle House located at 41938 Juniper Street is the oldest house in the Historic Downtown Murrieta District. The house was built in 1885 by Aucephas R. Doolittle and Daniel Buchanan.
Aucephas Roswell Doolittle was born in Vermont in 1845. He married Mary Greenwait in 1870 in Illinois and they had seven children. The Doolittle family moved to Murrieta in 1885. Aucephas Doolittle was a carpenter and builder.
He purchased a tract of land and created Murrieta’s first subdivision. The Doolittle subdivision consisted of 24 lots, six lots along Washington Avenue, nine lots on Juniper Street, and nine lots on C Street. The Doolittle home was the first home to be built in the new subdivision. It was a kit, ordered from a catalog and shipped from the east. Aucephas Doolittle and Daniel Buchanan built the home in ten days and according to Buchanan’s journal, it looked like this.
Aucephas Doolittle also helped Daniel Buchanan in the construction of the Murrieta Methodist Episcopal Church. They also built a kit home for Abram Burnett. The home would later be known as the Lakeman House.
The Doolittle family opened a Clothing and Millinery business on the second floor of the Murrieta Drugstore on Third Avenue. Doolittle’s Clothing and Millinery announced their opening on March 29, 1888.
Around 1891, the Doolittle family moved to Oregon City, Clackamas County, Oregon. Aucephas. R. Doolittle died in 1937. Other families that lived at the Doolittle House were the Bradys, the Crews, and the Hendersons.
